Let's all get depressed: Intel CEO says get ready for tech decline

The CEO of Intel recently opined on the state of tech investment in the U.S. His comments, according to an account on Cnet, were pretty depressing. One choice quote:

Take factories. "I can tell you definitively that it costs $1 billion more per factory for me to build, equip, and operate a semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States," Otellini said.

The rub: Ninety percent of that additional cost of a $4 billion factory is not labor but the cost to comply with taxes and regulations that other nations don't impose.

Then there was this:

The U.S. legal environment has become so hostile to business, Otellini said, that there is likely to be "an inevitable erosion and shift of wealth, much like we're seeing today in Europe--this is the bitter truth."

Just the kind of comments to brighten your day. One hopes that ours politicians read Cnet and see Otellini's remarks. You can see Cnet's account of them here: